Essay on the Influence of Video Games on Increased Cases of Violence Among the Youth

That video games have caused untold psychological as well physical harm, particularly to children is no secret. Currently, in the name of exciting entertainment, the media portrays violence as an “okay” activity with big sums in profits (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017). Particularly when it regards the internet, children try to recreate the same kind of content witnessed in the readily available violent contents they consume when playing video games. Among the so-called digital generation, the rise in violence is rightly blamed on the internet by many theorists. A myriad of challenges are faced by countries which have a significant number of internet users (Bavelier & Green, 2019).

Cyber bullying, bullying, college shootings and violence at schools are some of the recurring problems that occur in countries like Germany and the United states. On the other hand, internet suicides among children have increased in Japan while online video game players have increased consistently in China (Haghighat Panah et al., 2019). Online video game players around the world have been found out to be in the region of 230 million people, with the majority being children by a survey conducted in 2019 (Quwaider et al., 2019). Online video game players are a big problem as noted above in China. The steady rise in those who play video games over the internet globally, particularly the youth is a worrisome trend to internet analysts.

The spike in aggressiveness among the youth in modern society is considered to be caused by the mayhem portrayed in the many violent video games. Young people were not exposed to computer “toys” in the past. How violence is now perceived is demonstrated by the avalanche of new games which give rise to particular dangers. According to some researchers, video games are significantly different from television violence. In video games, the participant is the perpetrator of the violence while in television violence the participant could be regarded as a “witness.” Moreover, the participant in the video game can relate with the aggressor in the game. A range of emotions and feelings are induced by violent video game content as shown by surveys conducted in different countries. Ingram & Cangemi (2019)) discovered that aggressive thoughts are encouraged by aggressive games.

A survey was conducted across Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom among 4,000 parents to investigate the impact of video games among children (Hernández-Jiménez et al., 2019). The content of video games was a big concern for three-quarters of the selected parents as revealed by the study. That video games are categorized with regards to age-groups was unknown to 44 % of the parents while for at least one hour, children were allowed to play video games by more than half of the sampled parents. Children are allowed this kind of entertainment since the impact of video games is not sufficiently clear to many parents. Being indoors guarantees a child’s safety according to many parents.

Conclusion

Concrete actions must be taken by the society to counter the epidemic proportions of violence witnessed in recent times as a direct result of video games. Among young people, measures that curb violence such as instructional campaigns are highly encouraged since violence in schools is not prevented by video surveillance. The modern society should regard violence as a disease and treat it as such. Sensational reporting by the media with regards to violence should be condemned since this makes a hero of the aggressor and look down upon the bullied. Children are exposed to a lot of content and it is the responsibility of parents and educators by extension to filter the good from the bad.

References

Adachi, P. J., and Willoughby, T. (2017). The link between playing video games and positive youth outcomes. Child Development Perspectives, 11, 202-206.

Bavelier, D., and Green, C. S. (2019). Enhancing attentional control: lessons from action video games. Neuron, 104, 147-163.

Haghighat Panah, A., Esteki, M., and Moghaddam, K. (2019). impact of video games on creativity and spatial perception preschoolers. The Journal of New Thoughts on Education, 15, 229-256.

Hernández-Jiménez, C., Sarabia, R., Paz-Zulueta, M., Paras-Bravo, P., Pellico, A., Ruiz Azcona, L., and Santibáñez, M. (2019). Impact of active video games on body mass index in children and adolescents: Systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the quality of primary studies. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16, 2424.

Ingram, J., and Cangemi, J. (2019). Video games: Motivation, effects, and clinical implications on self-esteem. College Student Journal, 53, 1-12.

Quwaider, M., Alabed, A., and Duwairi, R. (2019). The Impact of Video Games on the Players Behaviors: A Survey. Procedia Computer Science, 151, 575-582.